Teya Chia Tea is a line of chia-based beverages that were created with the mission statement “to create delicious, healthful products that are nutritionally balanced and feature unique flavor combinations from around the globe.” With their first two offerings, Hibiscus Berry and Pineapple Peach, we think they’ve made some progress, albeit small, towards that goal.

Both flavors start out with a base of water, organic cane sugar, and chia seeds. The Pineapple Peach variety (which is 6 percent juice) also gets peach juice, lemon juice, and green tea, while the Hibiscus Berry (3 percent juice) features hibiscus concentrate and lemon juice. Both are then finished with natural flavors, citric acid, and stevia.

In our taste taste, we very much preferred the Hibiscus Berry.The flavor of this offering is  better balanced, with the hibiscus and lemon pairing very nicely and almost completely masking the stevia. It’s clean-tasting and actually a bit  sweeter than its counterpart (which has 2g more sugar).  However, it doesn’t really taste like a tea drink, but rather a juice cocktail. The Pineapple Peach flavor has potential, but doesn’t quite seem like it’s where it needs to be. Specifically, the tea seems at odds with the pineapple and the peach. And we’re slightly disappointed that pineapple, which is the first flavor listed, comes from flavoring and not from juice. In the case of both flavors, we feel like they could do a better job of making the tea flavor a bit more of a focal point.

Packaging and positioning are another area of consideration for this product. The obvious competitors are  the existing chia beverages that it closely resembles (specifically Mamma Chia and Chia Star). Much like these other products, Teya Chia has chia seeds evenly dispersed throughout the liquid and is packaged in glass bottles. We like the wording “chia tea,” but, as we mentioned with the flavor review, there’s still some work to be done to make this a reality.

Otherwise, we like the look of the packaging. They’ve done a nice job of making a clean looking label. The logo is front and center, while the text describing the flavor and the omega content is easy to read and can be quickly scanned. We think this will make for something that’s easy to pick out and is memorable. It’s certainly a good starting point for the brand.

From a positioning perspective, we’re not sure if we’d view this product as a tea or a juice. It could certainly run with the likes of Mamma Chia, but it doesn’t seem like there’s really room for another brand that’s using chia as its reason for being. Taking additional steps, be them visual or in flavor, to clearly be a part of the tea category feels like the best long term approach for this brand.

All in all, Teya Chia Tea is a bit rough around the edges, but it’s definitely not bad for a first effort. With some further development, the brand feels like it has some potential to be a nice addition to the tea category.